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Author of the THEODOSIA and NATHANIEL FLUDD, BEASTOLOGIST series, as well as the upcoming, GRAVE MERCY, about teen assassins in medieval France. I love to talk about writing, inspiration, and the human psyche.

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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

One of the speakers was agent Jodi Reamer from Writer’s House. I’ve heard a lot about her as she was the agent that brokered the first $1,000,000 YA deal (TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyers). And I was very impressed. She had some wonderful, concrete advice for the conference attendees.

1. Be careful in applying information about other authors to your own situation. Every author is different, and every author’s path to a successful career is different.

2. It really is ALL about the writing. The good news is that writing is a craft and you can always improve your craft.

Jodi Reamer’s Editorial Tips1. Three most important things about the writing: engaging characters, strong voice, uniqueness2. SHOW don’t tell3. Character’s voice MUST ring true4. Writing must be sophisticated5. Don’t over simplify historical fiction6. Don’t copy styles of another book7. When considering literary vs. commercial, write to your own personal strength

On the Market (Jodi had some great guidelines for the different categories of children’s books which I’lll post here because they can be confusing.)

YA – Ages 12 and up (although some at the conference felt that most YA was read by 11-14 year olds) 40-60M words; 240 mss pagesCharacters 18 and youngerCan’t be in collegeCharacter drives book(Caroline Cooney, another speaker at the conference, had this to say about YA: The most terrifying plot in this category is being without friends.)

Middle GradeAges 8-12 or 10-12 for older middle grade books30-50M words, 180 mss pagesFlawed characters, complex, sophisticated writing, series making a comeback, but with limited arcsMost editors looking for standalone titlesPublishers looking for one book a year from author

Picture booksMust be evocativeMust be illustrateableCan be no longer than 750 words

2
comments:

Darren
said...

Great info. Jodi is actually my agent as well and she is very sharp. Her energy is incredible. Sometimes it is hard to find the right voice to fit either middle grade or YA and you wander back and forth. I recommend reading several books in your genre in whatever spare time you have. Take from them what you will, but havng read them can be helpful to your own writing.